Home - School Communication Binders

Tomorrow is my official first day with students! I still have a lot of projects I want to finish but here is one that I have recently completed. I want to first thank Clutter-Free Classroom for the awesome FREE printables I used to create my own version of these binders. Check em out :)

Hoping these will make my daily communication with parents more successful!

2012-2013 Classroom Set-Up

I am so excited to begin this school year! Even though I only have 1 semester of teaching under my belt (I was hired mid-school year in December) I feel like I have such a better concept of what is really important for both myself and my students in the classroom! While I still kept many aspects the same as my set up last year, I did some major rearranging, organizing, simplifying, and of course decorating! (cuz I'm a teacher-nerd like that!) So here are the pictures of my set up so far (that is if I don't switch it up again before next week..)

I could not pass up this adorable printable from School Girl Style

Her owl collection was exactly what I was looking for and she was great about making changes for me when I asked for help. Everyone should check out her store on Teacher's Notebook!

This is something new I added this year. I am all over the building during the day. I go with my students to lunch, sometimes I am observing them in their electives or in an IEP meeting, office, etc. I wanted my co-workers to be able to find me if necessary, or at least have a general idea of where I am.

Close up! This is just a blank frame template cut and pasted to scrapbook paper :) 

View from the door looking in. I basically flip-flopped the location of my group instruction area. 

You can compare it to my previous set up in 2011-2012. 

I felt like everything was cramped by my desk the way I had it set up before. This is a change that I made towards the end of last year and it has worked out great so far!

Calendar area. I still have some features I want to add to this so stay tuned!

My student's magnetic name tags that will be paired with their pictures for my "at school", "not at school" columns (easier way for my kids to understand "attendance") I downloaded the clip art owls for free off of Teachers Pay Teachers but I can't remember the exact link! Just search "owls" :) 

Our Visual Schedule. I plan on doing a large "First"/"Then" and breaking the schedule down a bit for some of my kiddos.

Life skills area

This area seems kind of "blah" boring but it's my work box system (explained Here )

and it is important for my students that this area is as distraction free as possible so they can focus on independent vocational work. If you read my post on the work box system, you might notice that I have added more boxes and the wall charts will contain jobs as well. More on that in a future post! 

I printed my clock labels as a "flash" freebie from Clutter Free Classroom. LOVE how this turned out!

The blue flower next to the clock is actually a magnetic clip where I plan on sticking misc. papers that accumulate during the day that I need to send home with my students. 

This is the going to be a 1:1 work area.

Friendly reminders of expectations posted to reference. 

I am going to use this space to write in what times/which students our Speech, O.T., P.T., and Vision Specialists will be seeing. It seems like every week there are changes or cancellations so I figured this would be better than re-printing the schedule each week. I can't remember where I got these but I am pretty sure it was TPT again. (sorry!)

This is more for myself and my paraprofessionals to keep us all organized and for me to avoid answering "where can I find ___" 25x per day! Hehe

These cutie labels are from Heather Perkins' TPT Store A FREE Download! 

Bulletin board behind my desk. I know it's random but it's "my area", and I heart pugs, coke zero, and more cute owl printables. The name banner is from MiTeacher-Girl-Store. "Live, Laugh, Learn" printables were a FREEBIE from Kickin' It In Kinder's TPT Store ..I love how they pop against the black background. 

Couldn't resist this awesome guy at the Target Dollar Spot :)

This mini bulletin board was pinterest inspired. It was seriously so easy! Just rolled masking tape to the back of the black paper, slapped it on, did the same with the border, and voila! AND I get to use magnets on it which stay wonderfully against the metal file cabinet. 

How stinking cute are these! $2.50 each, once again at Target! This is where we will keep I.D. cards.

We are finally making it almost all the way around the room. This is my sensory/break area. Those of you who read my set-up post from last year may be wondering, where did that adorable-perfect-classroom-sized-free-dorm-hand-me-down  blue couch go?! Well friends -  I quickly learned that if you provide a super comfy inviting couch, some students will get just a little too comfy! Bye bye awesome couch, hello smaller chair! The curtain is actually a fabric shower curtain from the dollar store. It is covering the clutter/storage on the massive built-in shelf.

These owls I added to my wall decal I still have up from last year. Also from School Girl Style!

That brings us full circle! Whew - if you're still reading this mega long post then you are my new best friend! Hope someone gets some ideas from this and I am always open to suggestions. Feel free to PIN anything you see here. If I used one of your printables and forgot to give credit, please let me know! 

- Danielle